These debates are the western way of warfare and the military revolution debate. Both of these debates are controversial and based on problematic premises, but they nevertheless serve as useful thematic devices to explain the ways in which war has evolved and developed across two millennia of human history. The main basis of the western way of warfare debate is that the emergence of disciplined citizen armies was a feature of western democratic society first evidenced by the Greeks. There are obvious problems with this thesis, but it serves as a useful strawman to discuss eastern approaches to warfare, as well as the problems with a binary distinction such as this. The debate enables a discussion about war as an innate facet of human nature, as well as deeper questions about the influence of geographical, cultural or social circumstances in war, and the influence of war on state development. The main focus of the military revolution debate is that changes in tactics, technologies and organisation prompted significant knock-on changes in the size, composition and social cohesion of armies. These in turn had enormous implications for the growth and development of a state. Answer the following question in 300 words: How did approaches to war vary depending on the geographical, cultural or social circumstances of the protagonists?
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